Sweet Herbs

'Tis harvest time and we have been busy filling the pantry with all manner of food. We do a lot of food preserving here, from drying to freezing, canning to cellaring. A habit developed long ago that we see no reason to abandon. We like to eat, we like to garden, filling up the pantry is the obvious fnext step.

From fruit to green beans and tuna (OK, not from our garden), Italian style tomato sauce to Mexican style salsa we fill jars with the food from orchard and garden that will feed us through the winter and beyond.

We have always felt that anyone can grow a little fresh food for themselves. Even apartment dwellers can have a windowbox with greens or other vegetables. But of the things you can grow and save for year-round use, I would wager that herbs are the easiest.

From Basil to Oregano, Chives to Thyme, I can't imagine cooking without using herbs, fresh or dried. Many are hardy perennials and very simple to grow and save.

We recently added new raised beds to our garden. With 1/2" hardware cloth underneath, they are a gopher proof planting area. Previously we had planted gopher delectables such as carrots and garlic in cut off oil drums that are from the food grade oils we use in our soapmaking (see our business site). With the new beds, some of these barrels were now free and I saw the chance to make a new herb garden. I've planted a variety of types of Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Dill, Chives and Sage in these barrels, as well as a couple of Lavender plants so far.

This has worked out even better than we expected. In only two months these herbs have grown so vigorously that we are already able to harvest plenty for drying. This is fabulous - as I make herb blends for seasoning when I cook (see earlier BLOG "I'm All Mixed Up"). We also grow a variety of Basils, Tarragon, and Marjoram elsewhere.

There is absolutely nothing complicated about drying herbs, all you need is a well ventilated place to hang them. I pick bunches of herbs late in the morning after the dew has dried off of the leaves. I will pick them at pretty much any stage, but preferably before they flower (if you want Dill Seed, you must wait until after they flower and then form seeds). Bunch the cut ends of the stems together in a bundle that is not so big and tight that the center may have trouble drying and wrap securely with a rubber band. This is a hot tip! The rubber band will contract with the stems as they dry and keep your bundle from falling apart. You can tie a string or wire to the rubber band to hand the bunch from or just hook the bunch over a nail without. I save those twistie ties from store vegetables and use those. They stay rigid enough I can put a loop in them and hook them on the rafters without a ladder (or handy tall person, which I am not).

If it is a place that gets direct sunlight you can tie the bunch inside a paper bag and hang it all together. This helps preserve the color of the herbs. This also confines the fine leaves of the herbs, should they break off when dry.
Once dry, I strip the leaves off of the stems and store in airtight containers in a dry, dark place. I don't crush or crumble them until I am ready to use them or make one of my blends. They retain  flavor and aroma longer when stored as whole leaves.

And then, in the dead of winter I can relive the flavors and aromas of summer by adding these herbs to my cooking. It's as easy as that!

I'm All Mixed Up...

...With herbs and spices that is!

We are cooking a pot roast in the solar oven today and when I reached for my seasoning blend (Meat Treat) I found the jar almost empty. Time to make more of this and my other blends as well.

I find myself a rather lazy cook. I want to have my herbs and spices pre-blended so I don't have to formulate them for every meal. Over time I have learned of or invented herb and/or spice blends for everything from steak to tofu, Mexican to Chinese. For us the process begins in the garden.

Here are 3 blends of herbs we grow, dry, and combine to brighten our meals:

MEAT TREAT:
Rosemary - Easy to grow perennial in the ground or a pot. Impervious to bugs or deer.
Sweet Basil - Hot weather annual, easy to grow, pick repeatedly to keep from flowering and it will grow back.
Thyme - The regular sort, varigated or plain, perennial with tiny leaves. Harvest before it flowers.
Bay Leaves - Mediterranean Bay (the kind you get in stores) is milder. If you use the west coast native Bay Laurel, use it sparingly. We have a Mediterranean Bay tree in a large pot!
Garlic - OK, we buy garlic granules by the pound and use that. It is slightly coarser than garlic powder, and is definitely NOT garlic salt. I store it in a glass jar with airtight lid.

FISH FEST:
Lemon Thyme - Wonderful fragrant perennial, easy to grow and harvest as for Thyme (above).
Lemon Basil - Another wonderful basil. Loves hot weather. Annual that you can harvest it repeatedly and it will rapidly grow back as do all the basils. Just remember to cut it above 2 new leaf shoots.
I have never found Lemon Basil or Lemon Thyme in a store, so plan ahead and grow your own if you want to try this blend.
Dillweed - The feathery leaves, not the seeds. Plant this annual once and it will re-seed and grow forever.
Oregano - Another hardy perennial. Greek is milder, Mexican stronger, use accordingly. We prefer Greek.
Sweet Marjoram - Very fragrant annual. Relative to Oregano, used with eggs, vegies and meats.
Celery leaves - I actually grow a specific type of celery that mainly produces leaves. When I have tried to grow nice stalks of celery I always got wimpy stems with lots of leaves anyway - it just does not like our climate. I also save the leaves from celery (organic) I buy at the market and dry them in a colander after trimming them from the stalk.
Garlic - (See above)
Onion Powder - this we buy as well.

ITALIAN SEASONING:
Oregano, Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic
See above for all of these.
Fennel Seed - We buy this, toast it lightly in a small, heavy pan (we use cast iron) and then crush it slightly with a mortar and pestle.

PREPARING THE HERBS:
All the herbs listed here are harvested early in the morning after the dew has dried off of them, and hung in bunches by their stems in a well ventilated place out of direct sunlight. I like to use a rubber band to hold the bunch and a twisty-tie from vegetables I purchased at the store, or string, tied on to hang them by. The rubber band conveniently stays tight as the herbs dry and the soft stems of basil and others shrink in diameter. Woody stemmed plants such as rosemary and thyme have no problem. As to the bay, I just prune off a very small branch full of leaves and dry it and that lasts us a year or 2!

When dry, strip the leaves from the stems and store as whole leaves in airtight containers (we use glass jars) in a cool, dark cupboard. When you make a blend or use the herbs directly in cooking - that is the time to crush or chop them. Once broken they will lose their aromatic and flavor qualities faster.
By the way, you can save the stems and bundle them, tie with cotton or jute string, and throw on hot coals when grilling for herbally smoked meats.


ASSEMBLING THE BLENDS:
This is the inventive part. I never measure anything unless I have to, and cannot begin to give you exact measurements for any of these, but I do have some "rules of thumb". In all the blends you use equal amounts of the large leafy herbs (basil, oregano, dill, celery).
Grind these coarsely with a herb grinder (there are many styles, I like the Mouli Parsmint best - shown in photo) or chop with a knife. Thyme, more condensed, should be around 2/3 the amount of one of the others after grinding. Ditto rosemary. You can run the rosemary through the grinder as well.
To 1/2 cup blended herbs add 1 large bay leaf, ground, and/OR 1 Tablespoon garlic granules OR 1 Tablespoon onion powder, or 2 teaspoons fennel seed, as called for. If you use bay laurel, use less.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then store in an airtight container until used.

USING THEM:
Sprinkle Meat Treat over chicken, turkey, whatever, before cooking. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons to oil and vinegar with 1/2 teaspoon salt for a nice herb vinaigrette.
Sprinkle Fish Fest over any kind of seafood before cooking. Also sprinkle with a bit of lemon pepper or a squirt of lemon juice.
Italian seasoning can be added to tomato sauce for pasta, lasagna or any tomato dish.

YUM! I'm hungry just thinking about it all. Now off to transplant my basil plants (sweet, lemon, purple (for salad dressing), mammoth (mild - good in salads), and Thai). I think ahead, as I work in the garden, to the harvest and culinary delights ahead.